Accra: Journalists schooled on financial reporting

 A two-Day training for business journalists has ended in Accra with a call on corporate Ghana and journalists to partner towards restoring confidence in the Ghanaian financial system.

The training held on the theme: “Understanding Ghana’s Financial Sector Reforms: The Role of the Journalists,” was organised by the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) with support from Ecobank Ghana Limited and the Bank of Ghana.

Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana speaking at the Opening Ceremony said training for Financial Journalists was significant as any misinformation had the tendency to jeopardise the financial sector.

Touching on the reforms to ensure a strong and stable financial system, he said, financial stability constitute to be an important objective of the Bank of Ghana.

According to him, “the period 2017 – 2018 was eventful following the implementation of comprehensive reforms by the Bank to safeguard depositor’s funds, regain financial stability, and reposition the industry to support the country’s economic transformation”.

He explained that this year, Bank of Ghana has moved to further consolidate the gains made within the banking sector and extended the reforms to the specialized deposit-taking institutions.

Mr Opoku added that, as they embarked on an exercise to sanitize the microfinance and savings and loans sectors, the press was key in the successful process at the medium through which the BoG informed the public about the reforms and policy actions and has, therefore, acknowledged their effort.

He embraced challenges going forward and has entreated all to muster courage and be diligent in the discharge of their duties.

He explained further that, at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in November, the committee announced that a number of macro-prudential and market conduct regulatory measures to help boost credit to the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and to foster more competition in the banking sector as the process help lower lending rates.

He outlined some key points to help boost the (SMEs) as setting aside two per cent of banks primary reserve to support targeted lending to SMEs as part of the Enterprise Credit Scheme announced in the 2020 budget.

He noted that by exploring the possibility of setting a minimum loan to deposits ration to ensure that more deposits mobilized by banks are cancelled to viable private sector projects.

“Working closely with banks to ensure that banks do not pass on their operational inefficiencies and overhead costs to their clients by aligning compensation with overall bank performance”, he said.

He added that the BoG will scrutinize compensation policies for Chief Executive Officers and key management personnel as well as Board of Directors of universal banks.

He said: “Banks will be required to develop and publish a clear framework on the risk premium build-up that impacts on an individual borrower’s credit profile”.

The Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Daniel Sackey, in a speech read on his behalf tasked the journalists to be circumspect in their style of reporting especially on the banking sector, which is welcome news, owing to the importance of the financial sector to national growth and development.

He, therefore, commended the executive members of JBA for the continues desire to acquire new knowledge to be able to effectively play their role in journalism.

Mr. Sackey, however, encourages Journalists to consider in their deliberations issue of financial inclusion seriously as it is key for empowering the deprived and less educated sectors of Ghana and also to be keen on the developmental issue on the agenda of the government.

Source; ghanaguardian.com